Polish national charged in alien smuggling operation
By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune

Last update: August 21, 2008 - 5:27 PM

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office have charged a Polish national with attempting to smuggle two illegal immigrants into the United States.

Marek Jerzy Struzik was charged Wednesday with bringing two aliens into the country at a point other than a designated point of entry, according to a complaint in Federal Court in Minneapolis.

The complaint states that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents arrested two men, one from Poland and one from Slovakia, after they had walked across the Pigeon River near Grand Marais, Minn. on Aug. 1. The men told agents that Struzik had walked across with them, then returned to the Canadian side to retrieve his vehicle. The plan was for Struzik to pick up the men in Grand Portage State Park.

Struzik, 31, was arrested when he legally entered the United States at the Grand Marais border crossing.

The complaint states that Struzik was offered $2,500 by a man in Poland to smuggle two people into the United States. Struzik arrived in Duluth on July 25 and took a bus to Thunder Bay, Ontario. From there he flew to Toronto, picked up the two men and drove them back to Thunder Bay. There he received instructions on how to sneak the men across the northern Minnesota border, the complaint said.

If convicted, Struzik faces a maximum of 10 years in jail.



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